The NRA's no-compromise strategy

Democrats are glaringly absent from the roster of speakers at the NRA annual meeting. | AP Photo

“The NRA has essentially decided, whether consciously or not, to vacuum up the detritus left from the tendency of the Republican leadership to move to the middle,” he said. “It almost sort of completes a journey for them from being a mainstream organization to sort of being the equivalent of the John Birch Society.”

Former Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello is one of the Democrats who received an NRA endorsement in 2010.

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“They used to represent gun owners. Now they represent gun makers. They used to represent sportsmen. Now they represent survivalists,” said the former Virginia congressman, who lost that fall in the tea party tidal wave and is now president and CEO of the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said the NRA has changed since he worked with them as governor of a red state. He said that they used to be more supportive of finding ways to keep guns from the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.

“It’s just too bad the goal posts have been moved so far,” he said. “Their position is now in the end zone, not at the 40-yard line.”

NRA chief Wayne LaPierre rejects the notion that his group has taken a turn to the extreme. On Saturday, he described the NRA as “the middle of the river of America’s mainstream” and “at the heart of America’s heartland.”

The NRA is viewed favorably by a 34 percent plurality of Americans, down from 38 percent in January, according to a CBS/New York Times poll released Wednesday. Only 26 percent view the group unfavorably. The rest are undecided or don’t know enough to answer.

LaPierre pledged to continue supporting Democrats who support the group’s positions.

“To those senators and congressmen who have stood with the Second Amendment, we say thank you and ask you to keep defending our rights,” he told thousands of activists. “Let there be no doubt we stand firmly with you.”

There has been significant backlash from liberals against the four Democratic senators who opposed the background check measure last month, even though three are up for reelection next year in states carried by Mitt Romney. “Heidi Heitkamp betrayed me on gun control” was the headline of a Washington Post op-ed by former White House chief of staff Bill Daley.

Multiple NRA leaders blamed Obama for making the Democratic Party hostile to gun owners.

“He’s now threatening Democratic senators who are friends of NRA,” said incoming NRA President Jim Porter. “He will destroy them if he can. We must support friends who support our cause.”

There is an increasingly prevalent feeling among Democrats that the NRA doesn’t speak for the majority of gun owners on issues like background checks.

Bloomberg has promised to keep using his fortune to aggressively target Democrats in primaries with high ratings from the NRA. His super PAC spent $2.2 million to defeat former Rep. Debbie Halvorson this February in the Democratic primary to fill Jesse Jackson Jr.’s seat. She had earned an “A” rating from the NRA.